Autograph of piano sonata op. 109
We discussed the sonata op. 109 recently, and since the autograph is one of the most fascinating that I ever have seen, I scanned the 38 pages from a facsimile. They can be downloaded here as a zip file (18 mb): http://www.mysharefile.com/v/7503959/opus109.zip.html
The history of the manuscript is weird as well: Beethoven sent it to Schlesinger, the publisher, in 1821. He wrote that he supposed that Schlesinger would be able to decipher it ("wahrscheinlich wird ihnen mein Manuscript leßbar seyn").
Schlesinger then took the precaution of making a fair copy of the autograph and sending it to Beethoven, asking if it was alright.
Beethoven received it and answered that at first glance it looked ok ("Es scheint, so viel ich in der Eile erblicken konnte, die Abschrift der Sonat. beynahe ganz korrekt zu seyn").
But when he received a copy of the engraved edition, he discovered many mistakes in it, and sent a list of corrections to Schlesinger. He wrote that it had cost him a lot of trouble.
The terrible thing is that nevertheless the first edition was printed almost exactly like that copy with all the mistakes, so Beethoven's corrections were not there. And this edition has been the source of decades of wrong prints, and thus, of wrong performances - my guess is that this is still the case here and there.
The most notorious mistake is the reason why generations of pianists have played the complete first movement legato, while Beethoven only meant this indication for the start.
The fascinating thing about the autograph is that the process of composition can be followed at many places. Beethoven changed a lot in it, and it often can be seen what he improved, and even why (that is, the privileged people amongst us, and I am not one of them).
So it's a big, organized mess, and though it is totally in contrast with for example Ligeti's beautiful score of Artikulation (see http://ccrma.stanford.edu/~grace/220c/rtik_small.jpg ), I would not mind having Beethoven's op. 109 pages 7, 35, and 37 on the wall. It's pure art.
The history of the manuscript is weird as well: Beethoven sent it to Schlesinger, the publisher, in 1821. He wrote that he supposed that Schlesinger would be able to decipher it ("wahrscheinlich wird ihnen mein Manuscript leßbar seyn").
Schlesinger then took the precaution of making a fair copy of the autograph and sending it to Beethoven, asking if it was alright.
Beethoven received it and answered that at first glance it looked ok ("Es scheint, so viel ich in der Eile erblicken konnte, die Abschrift der Sonat. beynahe ganz korrekt zu seyn").
But when he received a copy of the engraved edition, he discovered many mistakes in it, and sent a list of corrections to Schlesinger. He wrote that it had cost him a lot of trouble.
The terrible thing is that nevertheless the first edition was printed almost exactly like that copy with all the mistakes, so Beethoven's corrections were not there. And this edition has been the source of decades of wrong prints, and thus, of wrong performances - my guess is that this is still the case here and there.
The most notorious mistake is the reason why generations of pianists have played the complete first movement legato, while Beethoven only meant this indication for the start.
The fascinating thing about the autograph is that the process of composition can be followed at many places. Beethoven changed a lot in it, and it often can be seen what he improved, and even why (that is, the privileged people amongst us, and I am not one of them).
So it's a big, organized mess, and though it is totally in contrast with for example Ligeti's beautiful score of Artikulation (see http://ccrma.stanford.edu/~grace/220c/rtik_small.jpg ), I would not mind having Beethoven's op. 109 pages 7, 35, and 37 on the wall. It's pure art.
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